2021 CAIRIBU Collaboration Award Recipients

Congratulations to Duke University K12 Scholar Maryellen Kelly, DPNP, CPNP, MHSc on receiving a CAIRIBU Interactions Core Collaboration Award for her proposal “Composition of the Urinary Microbiome in Children.” Dr. Kelly is joined by Co-PI Tatyana Sysoeva, PhD (University of Alabama at Huntsville) and Co-Investigator Lisa Karstens, PhD, MBI (Oregon Health and Science University). They have formed a new research collaboration to (1) evaluate, with species-level resolution, the urinary microbiome and composition of children, and (2) compare the urinary microbiome in pilot cohorts of children with and without rUTI. Long-term goals of the project are to develop a non-invasive clinical urine test that can predict children at high risk for rUTI and to develop a non-antibiotic intervention strategy for reducing rUTI in the identified at-risk population.

Congratulations also to Teresa Liu, PhD, Assistant Scientist in the UW–Madison Department of Urology and UW–Madison U54 George M. O’Brien Center. She was a prior K12 Scholar in the UW–Madison Multidisciplinary Urologic Research K12 Career Development Program. Dr. Liu’s CAIRIBU Collaboration award is for her proposal, “Prenatal estrogenic exposure contributes to racial disparity in the development of BPH/LUTS.” Dr. Liu’s hypothesis is that early exposure to estrogen leads to epigenetic changes in estrogen receptor and estrogen receptor-activated genes, resulting in higher susceptibility of African American men for benign prostate hyperplasia.